Onshore mortgage support labour hire: check the provider’s licence

Before bringing an onshore mortgage assistant or loan processor into your brokerage through a labour-hire arrangement, identify the supplying legal entity and check the applicable state or territory scheme. Verify the current licence position, including relevant conditions or an applicable exemption, before counting the proposed worker as available capacity. A familiar agency brand or an application receipt is not enough to answer every jurisdiction's requirements.

This guide is for brokerage owners buying agency-supplied support in Australia. It provides a proposed verification record and three fictional decision exercises. It does not determine whether a particular arrangement falls within a scheme, which jurisdiction governs a cross-border arrangement, or whether an overseas engagement is covered. Take those questions to the relevant regulator or adviser with the actual facts.

Establish what the supplier is proposing

Write down where the worker will perform the work, the brokerage receiving it, who contracts with you and who supplies and pays the worker. Include any intermediary between those parties. Keep the actual legal names and identifiers alongside trading names.

The Queensland regulator's guidance, for example, distinguishes recruitment and permanent placement from labour hire and specifically includes an agency on-hiring temporary administration staff. That is a useful warning against assuming office support sits outside the scheme. It is not a determination about your arrangement or a definition to apply unchanged elsewhere.

Use the recruitment and managed-outsourcing comparison to clarify who does what. Then establish the separate licensing question. If a proposed processor works remotely across a state border, give the regulator or adviser both locations and the actual contractual relationships. Do not choose a scheme solely from the agency's head-office address.

Use the relevant regulator's current route

The Fair Work Ombudsman directs businesses to the ACT, Queensland, South Australian and Victorian authorities for their labour-hire licensing schemes. The following is a routing aid for arrangements within each scheme, not a complete statement of exclusions or territorial reach.

Current licence-check routes, checked 16 October 2026

Jurisdiction	Point to verify	Official route
Queensland	A provider with only a pending application cannot be used; a current licence is required.	Guidance for users and register link
Victoria	The register distinguishes active licences from other statuses. Applicants must not supply before a licence is granted.	Licence status and application registers
South Australia	Newly covered industries had a 29 July 2026 licensing deadline. Check the specific temporary exemption for certain newly covered applicants.	Host guidance and exemption link
Australian Capital Territory	WorkSafe ACT's guidance for new applications says workers cannot be supplied during assessment. Check the public register for licence details. For an existing licence awaiting renewal, separately check its current status and expiry; do not treat the new-application statement as a rule that all renewal applicants must stop supplying.	WorkSafe ACT licensing and register link

Use the current official record when making the decision. A result saved during an earlier quotation may need rechecking before commencement, particularly if the supplier, worker location or proposed arrangement changes.

Preserve the South Australian exception accurately

The South Australian exemption notice published on 30 July 2026 covers a defined class of providers: they were outside the earlier licensing requirement immediately before 29 January 2026 because their supplied work was not prescribed; they lodged an application by 29 July 2026 that was subsequently accepted for assessment with the prescribed fee paid; and the application remains undetermined. The notice also exempts hosts entering arrangements with that class from the specified host prohibition.

That is narrower than saying every pending applicant can supply. It also means a Queensland-style rejection of every pending application would miss this particular South Australian exception. If a provider relies on it, obtain the facts supporting all the conditions and have the responsible reviewer confirm the position with CBS where needed. Record what happens when the application is determined.

Use the notice's precise timing: application lodged by the deadline, subsequently accepted for assessment and fee paid. Do not replace that with a guessed rule about when every assessment step must have happened.

Match the entity before recording a licence as verified

Victoria's host checklist advises checking that the company offering services is the one on the register, establishing the contact's connection and authority, contacting the nominated officer through register details, and retaining a record. It warns against relying on paper documentation that may be out of date or illegitimate.

For a brokerage, this check belongs beside the proposed supply agreement. If the quote uses a trading name, the agreement names one company and the certificate names another, ask for the relationship to be explained and verified. A common logo does not resolve the mismatch. Do not assume the same entity holds every obligation in an intermediary arrangement.

South Australia's host guidance says an intermediary should provide the details and licence number of the provider from which it sourced workers. Its register instructions allow checks using the licensee name, location or licence number, with labour hire selected as the licence type.

Proposed record for an onshore mortgage-support supply decision

Record	Evidence or unresolved question
Work and location	Assigned preparation or coordination duties, physical working location, receiving brokerage and intended start.
Parties	Contracting entity, actual supplying entity, payment responsibility and any intermediary; explain differences between legal and trading names.
Applicable scheme	Regulator route and the responsible reviewer's scope decision; unresolved cross-border or exclusion questions stay open.
Licence position	Register, exact entity match, number, status, relevant conditions and date checked; retain the source record.
Exception, if relied on	The exact exception, supporting facts, review owner and event that ends or changes it.
Staffing decision	Proceed on the verified basis, obtain clarification, or hold the proposed supply; name who authorises the decision and the next check.

Test three fictional offers before depending on the capacity

All organisations, people and staffing plans in these exercises are invented. They illustrate how to organise the decision, not findings about actual providers.

Brisbane: the processor is available, but the application is pending

A brokerage wants eight weeks of help organising lender conditions and factual follow-ups. The agency says its worker can start on Monday and supplies only a Queensland licence-application receipt. Under the cited Queensland guidance, that pending application does not establish permission to supply.

The owner does not mark the external capacity as confirmed. Existing staff retain the lender-follow-up queue while the owner resolves the supplier position or considers another arrangement. Candidate availability and a completed interview do not close the outstanding provider check.

Adelaide: the intermediary points to an exemption

A recruiting contact proposes an assistant supplied and paid by another business. That business says it was newly covered in January and lodged its application on 28 July. It provides evidence of subsequent acceptance and fee payment, and says no determination has been made.

The coordinator records the actual supplying entity and sends the exception evidence for confirmation. They neither approve from the recruiting contact's assurance nor reject solely because a licence has not yet appeared. The decision record needs the verified exception conditions and an owner to check the outcome of the application. If those facts cannot be established, the proposed supply remains unresolved.

Melbourne: the certificate belongs to a different group company

A supplier offers a temporary processor under Company A's agreement but sends Company B's certificate. Both use the same trading brand. The owner asks which entity will supply the person and reconciles that answer with the official register and authorised contact. The record stays open until the discrepancy is explained and the applicable position confirmed; the logo is not the evidence.

Carry the decision into the start plan

Once the provider position is resolved, carry the approved entity and any conditions into the start-date readiness check. Keep task authority, borrower-information handling, system access and supervision as separate approvals. A licence lookup does not complete those other assessments.

Set review triggers for a different supplying entity, changed work location, a relevant licence condition or determination of an application. Victoria's Follow my providers service offers notifications about licence-status and condition changes. Use the relevant official tools alongside an accountable relationship owner.

Bring your proposed onshore work location, support duties and supplier relationships to a Mortgage Talent staffing discussion. Confirm the proposed service and its applicable requirements directly. This guide does not state that Mortgage Talent or any named recruitment business holds a particular labour-hire licence.